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Battle of Wolf 359
The Battle of Wolf 359 took place in 2367 in the Wolf 359 system, roughly eight light years from Earth, between the forces of the United Federation of Planets and the Borg Collective. It is recorded as one of the most destructive battles in Federation history prior to the Dominion War. Prelude to Wolf 359 In 2366, on stardate 43989.1, the arrived at Jouret IV after contact with the New Providence colony was lost twelve hours earlier. The colony was found to have been completely destroyed, literally scooped from the planet's surface. Admiral J.P. Hanson and Lieutenant Commander Shelby of Starfleet Tactical arrived to investigate the disappearance. An away team determined that the colony was wiped away by weapons similar to those found on the Borg cube encountered by the Enterprise in System J-25. While investigating a planet within that system, scans, performed by the crew of the Enterprise, revealed evidence of a previous advanced civilization on the planet, but also massive surface scarring notably similar to that detected on several Federation and Romulan outposts along the Romulan Neutral Zone in 2364, which had removed all machine elements on the planet, suggesting a previous Borg incursion in the Alpha Quadrant. ( ) Starfleet immediately began preparations for a possible Borg invasion. Admiral Hanson returned to Starbase 324 to discuss strategy with Starfleet Command. Starfleet imposed a fleet-wide standing yellow alert, and warned all Federation and allied outposts. That evening at 1900 hours, the departed Zeta Alpha II on a freight run to Sentinel Minor IV. At 2212 hours, Starbase 157 received a signal from the Lalo reporting contact with a cubical object. The signal was cut off mid-transmission, and no response was received to further hails. Upon receiving this information from Admiral Hanson, the USS Enterprise set a course for the Lalo s last known location. With Starfleet reinforcements at least six days away, the Enterprise was on her own. En route to the coordinates, contact was made with the unknown vessel: a Borg cube. News was relayed to Admiral Hanson, who had begun to assemble a fleet to combat the invasion. The Borg demanded that the Enterprise captain, Jean-Luc Picard, beam himself aboard their vessel for an unspecified purpose. After a brief exchange of fire, the Enterprise retreated into the Paulson Nebula, with the Borg vessel close behind. Hiding in the dust cloud, the Enterprise and her crew prepared for the inevitable conflict. Attempting to force the starship out, the Borg launched magnetometric-guided charges into the nebula, causing minor damage to the Enterprise. Picard ordered the ship out of hiding, and in the ensuing attack, Picard was captured by the Borg, who then left at high warp, en route to Sector 001 and the core of the Federation. The cube maintained its course, with the Enterprise in hot pursuit. William T. Riker, as acting Captain, planned to force the cube out of warp in order to attack it using the Enterprise s deflector dish. An away team led by Lt. Cmdr. Shelby was sent over to the vessel, and succeeded in taking the Borg cube out of warp. In the process, it was discovered that Captain Picard had been assimilated by the Collective – he had been transformed into a Borg drone with the designation Locutus of Borg. Having temporarily disabled the cube, the Enterprise launched its deflector weapon. ( ) The cube easily shrugged off the Enterprise s assault with the unwilling aid of Picard's knowledge, and resumed its course to the Sol system. The Enterprise was forced to stay behind, having suffered extensive damage to its deflector array and warp core. In the meantime, Admiral Hanson and Starfleet Command had hastily assembled a fleet of forty starships, with more on the way. The Klingon Empire was in the process of dispatching warships of its own to assist in the defense, and the possibility of requesting Romulan support was even considered. ( ) The Battle cube]] In 2367, around stardate 44002.3, the cube entered the Wolf 359 system. Locutus hailed the assembled fleet, ordering them to disarm and escort the cube to the Sol system. Immediately thereafter, the fleet engaged the Borg. ::::::::::* The was among the first ships destroyed, with its saucer section partially vaporized while approaching. The was quickly neutralized thereafter. When the and the rushed to rescue their trapped sister ships, they, too, were destroyed, along with numerous other starships entering the combat zone. ( ) After bare minutes of combat, the fleet was faced with utter defeat. Admiral Hanson attempted to rally the remaining ships to launch a last-ditch assault, but his ship was destroyed shortly thereafter. His final words were to Captain Riker of the Enterprise, whom he contacted briefly during the course of the battle. Communications were cut off in the midst of this transmission, and no further transmissions were received. ( ) Ultimately, 39 starships were lost with a total loss of nearly 11,000 lives. Many people were assimilated. Only one starship managed to escape the disaster. ( ) At least one civilian transport craft was caught in the battle. The ship was heavily damaged and had to evacuate its crew and passengers via their escape pods. The mother of one Starfleet officer was onboard. The rest of the craft's passengers were most likely assimilated, though it is unknown if Locutus' ship had done this, or if they were assimilated at a later date. ( ) Aftermath Following the battle, the cube resumed course towards Earth, completely undamaged. The Enterprise, having finally completed repairs, raced to catch up to the Borg. ( ) In preparation for a Borg invasion of Earth, a state of emergency was declared on the planet. ( ) Using the recaptured Locutus and his link to the collective mind of the Borg, the Enterprise crew however managed to plant subversive commands to deactivate and destroy the Borg ship in Earth orbit. ( ) Although the outcome of the invasion could have been much worse, the result of the battle was nothing short of disaster. The loss of such a large number of starships left the Federation unprepared for any new sustained conflict. ( ) Commander Shelby took command of a special task force to rebuild Starfleet, but it would take up to a year before the fleet returned to previous deployment levels. ( ) Starships at Wolf 359 40 Federation starships took part in the Battle at Wolf 359. :See: List of starships at Wolf 359 Legacy Initiated around 2367, the development of the heavily armed was a direct result from the battle. However, as the Borg scare abated somewhat, the development process was slowed down, until it was decided to commission the prototype vessel (NX-74205) to counter the Dominion threat in 2371. Battle survivor, Commander Benjamin L. Sisko was part of the development team ( ). The ''Defiant was however called upon to fulfill its original design intent, during a subsequent Borg incursion in 2373, when it battled a Borg cube in the Battle of Sector 001. ( ) In 2367, Admiral Norah Satie used the battle as a means to question Captain Jean-Luc Picard's integrity during an inquiry board on Romulan subversion. She implied that Picard's relations with the Borg led to the battle, and hence he was untrustworthy. ( ) In 2370, Benjamin Sisko missed the painful fourth year anniversary by one day. It was the cause of his inability to sleep. ( ) In 2371, Vice Admiral Toddman commented to Sisko that the Battle of the Omarion Nebula between the Dominion and a Tal Shiar/Obsidian Order fleet sounded "like Wolf 359 all over again". Sisko admitted that he had had the same thought. Like the Starfleet ships at Wolf 359, very few Cardassian or Romulan ships survived. ( ) In 2372, Joseph Sisko remarked to his son Benjamin that the threat of a Dominion invasion of Earth had frightened the population of the planet to a degree not seen since the Borg scare. ( ) In 2373, Commander Chakotay encountered Borg drones assimilated at Wolf 359 during the battle but who were later on liberated thanks to a malfunction. ( ) In 2374, the Alpha Hirogen, Karr, in control of the , wanted to create a simulation of the Battle of Wolf 359, as it was one of the "notorious battles" of the Federation. ( ) Parallel universes where the Borg had decimated the Federation]] In one quantum reality, Picard was killed during the Borg incident and Riker succeeded him as captain of the Enterprise-D with Worf as his first officer. In a another quantum reality, the Borg had completely decimated the Federation by 2370. A battered Enterprise-D which was likewise under the command of Captain Riker was one of the few remaining Starfleet ships left. The Riker of this reality was desperate not to return to his universe after they had escaped it through the quantum fissure. They attempted to stop Worf from sealing the fissure. Their Enterprise-D was destroyed due to warp core containment field failure when another Enterprise-D attempted to disable it. ( ) Appendices Background Writer Maurice Hurley had originally planned the season one episode to be the first part in a trilogy that would introduce an entirely new threat to the Federation. He finally got to proceed with his planned sequel with "Q Who", although only one passing reference was made of the strange destruction of outposts referred to in "The Neutral Zone" by Data, "It is identical to what happened to the outposts along the Neutral Zone." http://www.st-minutiae.com/academy/literature329/142.txt. Not everyone picked up on the reference, partly due to the absence of the Romulans from the storyline, but they are mentioned when Q says, "You judge yourselves against the pitiful adversaries you have so far encountered -- the Klingons, the Romulans, are nothing compared to what's waiting." http://www.st-minutiae.com/academy/literature329/142.txt Star Trek Encyclopedia speculates that the was the ship that escaped the battle intact. The ship was mentioned in . The depiction of the battle in Emissary was originally much more elaborate. DS9's Visual Effects Supervisor Robert Legato was instructed to compose the battle footage before live-action production commenced. He recalled, "It was fun to do because I was allowed to make it up from scratch; there was no backlog of stock footage for it. The script said that they were right in the middle of this big fierce, ugly battle, and I had tons of debris in all the shots. Ships that were burning, on fire, flying past the camera. I made sure that all the debris had the correct names on it, the names of the ships that were mentioned in ''The Best of Both Worlds, so the episodes would tie together." Unfortunately, Legato had to re-composite the footage as the decision was made to shoot the live-action as if the ships were about to enter into the battle. "''I had to go back and take all the extraneous ships out. It was a heartbreaker, because it was a lot of work and very good-looking stuff-much bigger than anything seen on a ''TNG show." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, pp. 17-18) Legato had used some debris stock footage from the ''The Best of Both Worlds episode, but virtually all of it had to be left out, save from a fleeting shot of a hulk seen in the window of Sisko's escape pod as it left the Saratoga. That shot was previously used as the burning hulk of the USS Melbourne in Worlds, but was now that of a nameless hulk, as the name Melbourne was now usurped by the Excelsior-class vessel, destroyed a few scenes earlier on. Still, it has the distinction of being the only studio model portrayed in both depictions of the Battle of Wolf 359 and its aftermath. and a Borg cube as witnessed by Chakotay.]] The Star Trek: Voyager episodes and refer to people being assimilated during the battle and subsequently being returned to the Delta Quadrant, perhaps suggesting the presence of an undetected second Borg vessel which returned to Borg territory. In fact, "Infinite Regress" suggests that Seven of Nine personally assimilated at least one of those people. While the Klingon starships mentioned in dialogue ("We've mobilized a fleet of forty starships at Wolf 359 and that's just for starters... the Klingons are sending warships..."http://www.st-minutiae.com/academy/literature329/175.txt) were never seen on screen during the battle, in "Unity", when Chakotay entered a neural link with the Borg Cooperative, he witnessed a battle between a Klingon squadron and a Borg cube of the same type that Starfleet engaged at Wolf 359. In , the Borg Queen stated that she was present at the battle, a fact confirmed by Picard's memories of her seen in . When Picard asked the Borg Queen how she survived the battle, she replied that it is sad that he only thinks in "three-dimensional terms", which would indicate a fourth-dimensional (temporal) method for her escape. This is supported by the fact that she was seen to survive the destruction of her own personal ship in . Though the Defiant-class has been established as being a direct result of the Battle of Wolf 359, it is conceivable that at least one of the ships introduced in Star Trek First Contact, the , was also a result of that battle. While it is highly unlikely that a major shipclass like the Akira would have been developed and deployed in substantial numbers in such a short time, retrofitting an existing design would have been possible. It was certainly designer Alex Jaeger's intent for it to be a purely military ship, ""This was my gunship/battlecruiser/aircraft carrier. It has 15 torpedo launchers and two shuttlebays – one in front, with three doors, and one in the back." (''Star Trek: The Magazine'', Volume 1, Issue 3, p. 48), making it one of the most heavily armed starships seen in the franchise. Apocrypha * The Marvel Comics ''Star Trek: Voyager'' comic book contained in issue #10 a story entitled "Ghosts" which deals with survivors of Wolf 359 trapped in a temporal rift. Along with several Federation ships, at least one Klingon Bird-of-Prey, at least three and one starships were seen fighting the Borg cube at Wolf 359. * In William Shatner's Star Trek novels, the Battle of Wolf 359 also occurred in the mirror universe. However, this battle was between the Terran Empire and the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. The Terrans were routed, and the Alliance bombarded Earth, vaporizing the Great Lakes and other landlocked bodies of water. * The novel Greater than the Sum confirmed that many people were assimilated during the battle but since the ship only had a certain number of drone slots they were sent back to the Delta Quadrant on that ship's Borg Sphere. * The video game Star Trek: Borg is centered around the idea of Q sending the player back to prevent the destruction of the USS Righteous during this battle, culminating in the player and the ship being sent into the present by Q after the player has averted the ship's destruction, thus allowing the timeline to be preserved and give the Righteous the chance to gain a unique amount of information about the Borg. * Star Trek Online features a mission wherein the player, aboard the USS Saratoga, is sent back in time by Q to prevent the death of Benjamin Sisko. The player can also go to Wolf 359 and view a memorial to the battle and its victims. pl:Bitwa pod Wolf 359 bg:Битката при Вълк 359 cs:Bitva u Wolf 359 de:Schlacht von Wolf 359 fr:Bataille de Wolf 359 ja:ウォルフ359の戦い nl:Slag om Wolf 359 Wolf 359, Battle of